De Montfort Hall in the red

12.48.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 14th Oct 2009

De Montfort Hall has confirmed a £1.41m loss

One of the City's main attractions, De Montfort Hall has confirmed a £1.41m loss - leaving Leicester taxpayers to pick up the bill. Last week the council suspended three employees and passed information to the police in relation to "activities" at the hall.

Liberal Democrat group leader Pete Coley and chairman of the council's performance and value for money select committee, told local press; "The picture we have had all the time is not of (alleged) mismanagement," he says. "None of this was flagged up in a way that raised major concerns." Councillor Coley said he had not even seen the £37,000 Deloitte report which listed the hall's failings and has "no recall" of being told about it - until the local paper got in touch. He went on to say "The changes of programmes which were agreed in 2006 by the then Lib/Dem - Conservative administration was never put in place by the new Labour run administration in 2007."

In October 2007, two months before Deloitte (Consultants brought in to look at the venue) discovered the hall's cash black hole, a budget monitoring report said indications were the hall's income streams were "broadly in line with the budget".